Leonid Kupriyanovich


Leonid Ivanovich Kupriyanovich was a Soviet engineer from Moscow who is credited for early development of a mobile phone device.

Career

In 1955 Leonid Kupriyanovich published the description of a simple walkie-talkie amateur radio station for personal use in the Soviet amateur radio magazine "Radio," 1955, N2. It operated on two vacuum tubes. The walkie-talkie weighed about 1.2 kg and had 1.5 km operating distance.
In 1957 Leonid Kupriyanovich presented a micro walkie-talkie radio version the size of a matchbox, 50g in weight and had 2 km operating distance.
Also in 1957 he made an experimental model of a wearable automatic mobile phone, called LK-1. His device consisted of a base station and a portable handset. LK-1 was 3 kg in weight, 20–30 km operating distance, and 20–30 hours of battery life. Leonid Kupriyanovich patented this mobile phone in 1957. The base station, in accordance with author's description, could serve several customers. In 1958, Kupriyanovich made the new experimental "pocket" model mobile phone. This phone had 0.5 kg weight. To serve more customers, Kupriyanovich proposed the device, named it as a correllator.
In 1961 Leonid Kupriyanovich presented a pocket automatic radio phone which could fit in the palm of a hand. This pocket mobile phone weighed only 70 g and had 80 km operating distance. Kupriyanovich told correspondents of the АПН news agency that in the USSR the production of this device was planned. He also reported the plans for the construction in Moscow of ten base stations for creation of a mobile communication network. The first station in Moscow was planned to be constructed in Mazilovo.
In the 1960s Leonid Kupriyanovich's electronic set "Rhytmoson" was manufactured in the USSR and purchased for medical purposes.